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CHAPTER XVI. 



THE DOG. 



The intelligence of the dog is of special, and indeed of 

 unique interest from an evolutionary point of view, in 

 that from time out of record this animal has been domes- 

 ticated on account of the high level of its natural intelli- 

 gence ; and by persistent contact with man, coupled with 

 training and breeding, its natural intelligence has been 

 greatly changed. In the result we see, not only a general 

 modification in the way of dependent companionship and 

 docility, so unlike the fierce and self-reliant disposition 

 of all wild species of the genus; but also a number of 

 special modifications, peculiar to certain breeds, which all 

 have obvious reference to the requirements of man. The 

 whole psychological character of the dog may therefore be 

 said to have been moulded by human agency with refer- 

 ence to human requirements, so that now it is not more 

 true that man has in a sense created the structure of the 

 bull-dog and greyhound, than that he has implanted the 

 instincts of the watch-dog and pointer. The definite 

 proof which we thus have afforded of the transforming 

 and creating influence exerted upon the mental character 

 and instincts of species by long and persistent training, 

 coupled with artificial selection, furnishes the strongest 

 possible corroboration of the theory which assigns psycho- 

 logical development in general to the joint operation of 

 individual experience coupled with natural selection. For 

 thousands of years man has here been virtually, though 

 unconsciously, performing what evolutionists may re- 

 gard as a gigantic experiment upon the potency of in- 

 dividual experience accumulated by heredity; and now 

 there stands before us this most wonderful monument of 



